If you were to randomly ask people what the most popular book from the past few years was, you would likely get the same answer from almost everybody—The Hunger Games .It’s rare to find many book series that captivates audiences as much as Suzanne Collins’ dystopian future novel about teenagers sent by the government to participate in a fight to the death, especially with how saturated the Young Adult genre has become since the final Harry Potter book was published in 2007. Obviously everybody sees something special in these three books, and it seems that Suzanne Collins struck gold in a way that most book series simply don’t. But why are these books so successful and why are so many authors attempting to imitate the story and “improve” the genre with so many similar stories?

While this isn’t always the case, most modern Dystopian novels feature an oppressive government ruling with an iron fist and oppressing its subjects for the greater good. Most of the time, the citizens suffer due to this treatment from the government. The Giver is often credited as being the novel that made the subgenre such a success, but it was certainly The Hunger Games that re-launched the genre and brought it to what it’s today.

While the genre is quite successful overall, some students seem be be mixed toward the genre. “I think that they’re interesting, but they always have to have a twist to it and they don’t fully understand of the book’s ‘problem’. That makes it hard to understand problem in general,” Freshman Miranda Price said. “I don’t read too many of them, but the ones I read are pretty good,” Senior Casey Prell said.

It could definitely be said, based off these two responses provided, that these novels are reaching their target audiences. But why do teens pick these books up in the first place? Do these really appeal to teens in the first place? My initial theory was that teens enjoy reading books where teens just like them are bringing down their oppressive rulers. I assumed it made kids feel empowered in a way other genres just couldn’t.

It was at this point that I realized that I had been looking over two important details that could prove to be quite helpful. Many of the major Dystopian novels released for teens lately features heavy violence. This could imply that teen readers long for detailed and exciting action, which, recently, I can only seem to find in YA Dystopian novels (and that’s only if I’m looking for a compelling story to go along). Another factor, probably more likely, is the prevalence of what many people consider “strong female protagonists”. I don’t, however, mean “strong” in the typical sense, but more in the sense that many of them are extremely violent or partake in extreme action on at least a semi-regular basis. Most of the major Dystopian novels released in recent memory feature these strong, violent, or action-packed young women from the terrible, unoriginal Divergent all the way to The Hunger Games. And if we look at the box-office performance of the adaptation of The Giver, based on a story with a passive male lead, maybe people are avoiding the opposite?

Obviously people want more strong female leads (this has been clear for years), but I don’t understand why the violent ones always seem to pop up in this genre. What makes this genre so appealing for authors aspiring to write these girls in books? Why do they write them in this way? I read novels in other genres, and there are strong female leads in them as well, but there are also many books with a strong male lead. Why is this certain genre completely dominated by a rebellious teenage girl?

In the end, this genre has me scratching my head more than before I started this, and this genre’s success genuinely puzzles me. One thing is for sure: people will eventually move on to another genre, and the cycle will start all over again, leaving the teen Dystopian genre in the dust (save for the few good books), and we’ll be open to many more rehashes. I just hope the next popular genre is less confusing.